Moritz Bomstein

(Survivor)

Moritz Don Bomstein (originally Bomsztajn) was born in Belchatow, Poland on April 8, 1904. He moved to Piotrkow Trybunalski and married Paula Szpiro. They had three children – Zosia, Jakob (Jack) and Mania. The family was forced into the Piotrkow Ghetto, Poland’s first ghetto, by the Germans. From there, the mother and two girls were sent to Treblinka (a death camp in Poland) and were never seen again. Moritz and son Jack were sent to Czestochowa and then to Buchenwald, where Moritz Bomstein wore the uniform in this exhibit. Later, they were sent to Dachau. In 1945, they were put on a train to be transferred again but the Americans stopped the train and liberated them. After the war, the Americans sent them to a DP (displaced persons) camp in Landsburg, Germany to await their quota number to enter the United States. They were in Germany for five years before coming to Cincinnati in 1950. Later, Jack married Bernice and came to Dayton to open a business. They had three sons in Dayton and still reside here. Jack says that to survive, they did as they were told. Moritz Don Bomstein died in Cincinnati in February 1954 of a heart attack. He was 49 years old.

Buchenwald was established in July 1937. It became the largest death camp in Germany and is still maintained as a memorial by the German government. It is located in Upper Saxony, not far from Nuremberg. Between 60,000 and 65,000 people lost their lives there.